Economic conditions affect jobs of teachers across county

GENESEE COUNTY, Michigan — Local districts are clinging to their teachers and trying to avoid layoffs as enrollment numbers and funding lag.

While the Flint School District is taking a big hit, laying off 257 teachers in April, most local school systems are trying to avoid cutting instructors.

In Flint, the layoffs were intended to help avoid a $20-million budget deficit. On June 17, the Flint Board of education called back 73 teachers.

Districts in some surrounding communities have managed to keep most or all of their teachers. The Davison, Flushing, and Grand Blanc districts haven't had any layoffs. Carman-Ainsworth initially laid off eight members of its teaching staff, but called six of them back to full-time positions and the other two returned to part time.

But even districts who have managed to keep their teachers have had to fight for them.

After negotiating with the teachers union, the Grand Blanc School District was able to strike a deal keeping it from having to lay off any teachers and possibly giving it the ability to hire some, depending on fall enrollment numbers.

Part of that deal was offering a retirement incentive, or buyout, to high-seniority teachers, allowing Grand Blanc to keep newer teachers. In all, 24 staffers took the buyout.

Before making the deal, however, Grand Blanc officials made no promises about not pink-slipping teachers.

During union negotiations, Assistant Superintendent Norman Abdella said looking ahead was the key to saving jobs.

"If you see how many businesses or associations or unions waited until the companies were on life support before they discuss consessions, it's really just a great thing that ours stepped up and was willing to do this early on. It's going to save us a lot of money down the road," Abdella said.

That doesn't mean Grand Blanc is out of the woods. It managed to cut $3 million from its budget this year, but District Business Manager Dana Taylor said she expects another $4 million in cuts next year.

The difference between Flint and surrounding communities mirrors a statewide trend of families with school-age children moving from cities to rural areas, said Kurt Metzger, former director of the U.S. Census Bureau in Michigan and a population expert.

"Education seems to be driving it in most cases," he said.

There are two main factors contributing to teachers being pink-slipped: Decreasing population and the "exodus" of students to either charter schools or school of choice programs, said Sharif Shakrani, co-director for Michigan State University's Education Policy Center.

Those two factors create what Shakrani calls a "domino effect," in which the number of students leaving causes schools to have less funding and therefore sometimes lower test scores, causing more parents to transfer their students.

Surrounding schools are taking note of population changes in Genesee County, such as a drop in married couples with school-age children and in single-parent homes with children under 18.

Zel Seidenberg, chief administrative officer of Grand Blanc Academy, said about half of the charter school's students come from Flint and more are expected next year. Linden Charter Academy recently stepped up its recruitment efforts after Flint closed five elementary schools this year.

Despite the shifting of students between districts, Metzger said the simple fact is that the entire state is losing people, and so will schools.

"We've got all these districts competing for a smaller and smaller pie," he said.

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